That sound you hear is another old taboo exploding.

It used to be that authors with book contracts pretty much had to do what publishers told them to do. Right?

If you got big enough you might be able to throw your weight around. But most authors had little if any power.

So this is definitely another milestone moment in 21st Century publishing trends:

Novelist Polly Courtney has dropped her publisher HarperCollins for giving her books “condescending and fluffy” covers aimed at the chick lit market.

There was a time when Courtney would have had to accept whatever covers/marketing decisions her publisher made.

Not any more — because now she has options.